Into the Dark
by AdmiralJ
Summary: What would happen if the next generation fighter jet would land in the strike witches universe?
1. Contact

Into the Darkness

Copyrights go to their respective owners

Thanks to

DarkSilver96

PrincessKooh

General Beyak

and many many more

May 2044, this day was greeted by thick milk-like fog in the bay area where the two jets stood in a hangar. Today was a calm day, one of the jets would be transferred over to Japan for demonstration of itself and its capabilities. The other one was to remain in the states for another week or so before being transferred over to Australia. These were the first fully capable jets of their class, the first ones after the prototypes, the first F-36 Flash multirole Fighters. Two hours after sunrise the grey hangar doors opened and one of the ground support cars towed one of the flashes out onto the field. Soon the ground crew swarmed around the small fighter jet which somewhat looked like a smaller crossover between the F-15 and F-22 refueling it, doing the check-ups and generally making sure that the plane will fly as needed. Around that time in a different part of the San Jose Air National Guard's Base the Pilot of the jet went into the pre-flight briefing. This flight was going to be a simple one: Fly the plane from California up the coast to Alaska and turn west at the Aleutian Islands and fly over Hokkaido towards Osaka. The riskiest thing was to fly an armed new fighter jet along the Russian airspace. For the demonstrations and the possibility of an attack during the transfer flight, the jet was armed with its very own new missile system, which was very well able to defend the plane.

The take-off was scheduled for just after 17:00 UTC so that the plane was scheduled to land after 15 hours at 5 pm local time in Japan. Still Sandwich in hand and a Lunchbox as well as the helmet the pilot exited the main building and was being picked up by a service car and being brought to the field in front of Hangar 5, where the jets stayed. The pilot stepped out of the car and thanked the driver of the car and finally noticed the cold and fresh air blowing around her nose as she walked up to the plane. She greeted the ground crew as they finished with the last checks to ensure always right. She will fly beautiful one of the ground crewmen said as the pilot stood in front of the jet. She flipped out the ladder, climbed up, opened the cockpit and stored her backpack behind the pilot's seat. She then disappeared into the hangar, appearing back into the open less than ten minutes later and climbing into the cockpit of the jet plane. She strapped herself with the help of the ground crew into the pilot's seat and put the lunchbox between her legs and mounted it there. The pre-start checklist for the F-36 was almost completed when the pilot enters the cockpit. Everyone said goodbye and she closed the canopy. Two engines started howling as she turned up the throttle and rolled down the field and ramp towards the runway. After the tower gave her the go the engines roared accelerating the plane down the runway and finally taking off three quarters downrange. The mountains to the east of the airfield were wrapped in a thick layer of clouds and the small jet plane, still accelerating, crossed the cloud level. A few minutes later as the jet reached cruising altitude, the pilot typed in the route for the autopilot to follow and popped in some music to pass the time until the first checkpoint in Seattles airspace. Over the period of in total eleven hours, she would fly over 8500 kilometers. Over the arctic circle, the sky was deep blue and clear the seas thirteen kilometers below were quite calm, almost like a blanket of blue velvet. Just before noon, eleven hundred miles off Hokkaido's northern coast a storm arose out of the blue. Within minutes the small jet plane was amid an arctic storm, even though it was still flying at thirteen kilometers altitude. Winds of over one hundred miles per hour smashed into the plane as it tried to maneuver out of the storm, yet it got sucked into the eye of the storm. In the eye of the storm, a giant barrage of bolts of lightning hit the airplane.

About two minutes later, on the other side of the world in Germany a green dot went missing on a world map, however, it would take another ten minutes until the missing of said dot would be noticed. The shift manager for international flights at IRIS was named_ name redacted_ Ben. Ben has previously been an ATC (Air traffic controller) near Amsterdam and had collected quite a bit of experience at Schiphol in his five years there. When he noticed that the one dot was missing that could not be missing at all costs he began to panic. "Hey Satcom, yeah this is Ben. Our prototype just went missing", he hastily spoke into the phone that lay on his desk in the large dark room which was only lit by dozens of screens on desks and three giant ones on one wall. He proceeded: "The flight number is PD-33044, can you please send me the final available radar data and any possible images? Good thank you", he laid down the phone and began to write into the protocol file for flight PD-33044 noting when and where it went missing. Fifteen minutes later the General flight manager, the Satcom Intelligence Manager and Ben, our international flights manager were assembled in a meeting room, the SIM and Ben were still in the flight control building, whereas the GFM was in his study visibly tired and wearing a pajama. "Sir, if the Images from the satellite network are right, then a giant arctic storm build up in front of the prototype and disappeared less than ten minutes later", Ben said pointing at the satellite images. "There was also not a single thing to see on the Radar screen" He pointed at another image showing a black circular shape with green lines in it: the last sent Radar image. As anyone could see: there was nothing on the image. "Now we only need to inform the relatives and friends as well as think of an excuse why they died", the GFM said.

The storm arose in front of her in mid-air, then she was hit by lightning and then… and then black. She remembered nothing between being mysteriously knocked out and waking up, still flying. The plane seemed intact, as she was not falling but rather gently flying, just like she did before she was hit by the storm. Looking over the multiple monitors inside the cockpit she asserted her current location: as she was still flying the same curse, she must be roughly 1500km off Hokkaido's Northern Coast, but still flying towards Nagoya Airport. The only thing to do for our Pilot was to wait for another three hours until she came into Nagoyas airspace and request permission to land. On the route planning, it was requested that she flew over the open sea as much as possible so she would fly roughly fifty kilometers off the pacific coast of Japan until she came into the bay of Nagoya where she would fly over to Nagoya Airport. Just south of Tokyo she noticed an aircraft carrier steaming through the sea. It looked like it was from a century ago, so the time of the second world war. Our pilot was only left with one option: Land aboard the carrier parting the gentle waves seven miles below. She brought her plane into a steep dive, pulling up about one kilometer above the water. „To the aircraft carrier currently running a 165 course I am a currently neutral non-hostile aircraft roughly 5000 meters of your port-side. Please refer to me as „Iris ". I am requesting permission to land on deck ", our Pilot sent over all known radio frequencies. The response from the aircraft carrier didn't take long as less than one minute later the radio transmitted the voice of a young male: „This is the Fuso Imperial navy Aircraft carrier, Akagi, we do have a faint visual on you, I will be giving the microphone to somebody with higher authorities in just a second „Iris"", then the radio went silent for a moment in which our pilot switched off most radio frequencies except the one she was talking on. „This is Major Sakamoto calling Iris, you do have permission to land under one condition, that we will talk in person with each other" Olivia eagerly listened and then responded: "Roger and Wilco, I'm heading in for landing "Around one minute later the two jet engines roared as she pulled up almost in a 90-degree-angle. The second the rear wheels touched Akagís flight deck she tuned the engines up a bit more, pushed down the stick and pulled the brakes. A second later the fuel supply was cut to the engines and the aircraft rolled roughly forty meters over the deck before coming to a full stop.

The canopy of the cockpit opened and a person wearing a weird helmet and in full pilot's montage climbed out and over a ladder onto the flight deck. Major Sakamoto headed towards the aircraft as well as the staff-captain of the Akagi. „Thank you for letting me land on board ", the blond-haired pilot said with her helmet under her arm. „Would you mind telling me the date, local time ad the name of the nearest country? ", she hasted out before Sakamoto could even say a thing. „It is the twenty-fifth of May 1944 and it is four o'clock in the afternoon and to the shore side of Akagi you can see a small line on the horizon, which is our home country, Fuso " "Ok, thank you. By now I think I should introduce myself: I'm Olivia, I would be holding the military rank of Captain or Flight Officer and my last name is classified out of private and safety reasons ", Olivia answered. „Olivia, my name is Major Mio Sakamoto and please tell me about that plane over there ", Sakamoto demanded. „That is the newest prototype of the F-36, but I have to note that this is from a different universe and you wouldn't see anything alike for another fifty years or so ", Olivia reluctantly answered. In Sakamotos mind, a puzzle was completed: "So you do come from another universe, and from there even in the future? And have you also heard of the Paradox-Theory?" Olivia nodded, signing her approval. „I cant tell you much more right now, because I think what might be going on in this universe ". So to verify it, I want to ask you a few questions and please answer truthfuly and neutral. The first question is: Where are you sailing to ad what is your objective there? If it is classified tell me as much as you can". Sakamoto told her the route they were going to take would take them to Europe, with stops in Singapore, Mumbai, East London and Cape Town. On Olivias question Sakamoto flinched as she asked if they were in a war, but she answered truthfully that they were, in fact, at war. But they were not at war with a Nation, but with an unknown species: the neuroi. Olivia seemed as if she didnt care about the rest of the answers. „May I call you just Sakamoto? Im not a member of the military per sé but rather a contractor from the enterprise that builds the F-36. But as my country's military has not enough trained pilots, so they lease fighting power with plane and pilot, and for legal reasons the planes that the leasing pilots use have been iven to them from the head of enterprise.", Olivia told her. Sakamoto thought about it for a few seconds: „Im fine with that. But would it even be legal to own an aircraft such as this?" Oliva just nodded: „Yes, it is, but only for military puposes. In this situation one of the very few options is to help you in the war against neuroi. Let me set up a contract to make it official."

**A/N: The F-36 is a combnation between the F-22 and -35 and the B-29. Hopefully I write more soon.**


	2. Acquaintances

Into the dark Chapter 2: Making acquaintances

After Sakamoto and the captain both signed the contract employing Olivia as one of the fighter pilots of the Akagi and later as assistant of Major Sakamoto when they arrived in Britannia. But until there, it will take roughly 4 weeks of travel by sea. On the first evening Olivia was introduced to the airmen of the carrier, a wonderful and nice bunch of people. „Everyone, you all might know why you have been called here", the captains voice sounded through the main mess, „I want to introduce you to our newest crew member: Captain Olivia, she will be with us for the brief period of our journey to Britannia. She will be directly under Major Sakamotos order and her assistant. I hope you get along well during our trip to Britannia"

The next morning, just before sunrise a few people walked up onto the deck of the carrier on which the airplane still stood. The watchmen standing on the bridge were able to see the silhouette of Sakamoto in the dawn, while she was quietly jogging along the deck. A bit later Olivia joined her from the rear of the carrier and the two quietly surrounded the deck twice before they went below deck to get some breakfast. They could smell the mess hall from dozens of meters away.

„I think I haven't introduced you to Yoshika Mijafuyi, her father invented the machine that will save mankind. I am taking her to Britannia to teach her more about her father and his invention: the Striker Unit. I can show you what that is and roughly how it works sometimes. From what I know about Yoshika, she is probably in the kitchen helping with the breakfast" The two got their potions, sat dow and began to eat. Shortly after they started eating Yoshika joined them. „Good morning Sakamoto, may I ask who this is?", Yoshika said, holding a tablet with breakfast in her hands and seating herself next to Sakamoto.

„This", Sakamoto said gesturing over to Olivia, „is Olivia, she is not a member of any military but rather a pilot for lease." Yoshika looked confused over to Olivia. „Then why are you even fighting in this war?", she asked, her smile disappearing. „Mijafuyi, you should know that Im practically stranded in this universe. Fighting in this war is one of the very few options for me, and it gives me the highest chance of returning to my own universe. If there was another option that gave me even similar chances of returning then I'd take it any day".

Over the next weeks they adapted to the life aboard Akagi, training in the morning, breakfast, running any maintenances needed, packing magazines, lunch and so on. One day, Sakamoto asked Olivia to show her the F-36 more in-depth. After breakfast the two got into the hangar where the jet was parked. „So, what do you want to know?", Olivia asked whilst checking the port-side wing. „Why was this aircraft researched and built? And why does it not look anything like our fighters?" „What I'm about to tell you is classified information. This aircraft has been designed to be an advanced alternative to another aircraft able to carry the same ordnance over the same distance at a much lower price per hour. In my universe, around four years ago it began that one of my worlds most flown air corridors was a kill-zone for a large group of terrorists. If you can't tell my world has had a different past and present to yours.", Olivia said, whilst walking over to the rear of the aircraft looking into the engines exhausts

„As the corridor became more and more dangerous, even civilian airplanes would have to be escorted by fighters, but the fighters range was very limited. So they used the longest range fighters they had available and avoided the air corridor s far as possible. But then about fifteen months ago the terrorists spread out to another air corridor and shot down six planes in two hours. The same day we, as the developers of this aircraft, got the call that we had to extend the mission range as far as possible. It's operational radius is above twothousand miles, or that's what the public knows, as these fly escort routs up to 4500 kilometres long. But it can actually fly way farther with a tank full of gas. I did fly from California to Fuso on one tank of gas, which is roughly eight- to ninethousand kilometres"

The two talked quite a long while about the aircraft, but all questions were eventually answered and they went back. They were scheduled to arrive in the late afternoon of the day, that Olivia took the F-36 out of the hangar and fly to the witches base from sea. Around 11am Sakamoto spotted a single Neuroi roughly ten miles away from the Akagi. Within minutes the fighters were in the air, Yoshika and Olivia could hear them from the sickbay. Sakamoto pressed a tiny radio transmitter into Yoshikas ear. On the way to the Hangar Olivia asked: „What is the frequency of the Radio that you gave Yoshika",she turned around a staircase rushing upwards. „The radio room is just ahead ask them",Sakamoto spat out gesturing into a corridor with a multiple doors, one of them was lit. „Hey what is the main radio frequency used?", she asked after she swung into the radio minutes later she was on the way towards the hangar again. She jumped into the aircrafts seat, strapped herself in put her radio in-ears in and let the deck crew clear said deck. As soon as she got the go signal, she reversed the plane by 45 meters giving her a good 200 meters to get into the air.

She pulled the brakes, lit the engines and could not only hear their roaring but also feel the brakes trying to hold the aircraft in place. She loosened the bakes and put the engines into launch mode and catapulted forwards. Four seconds later she was airborn feeling as if she had just been kicked into the seat.

It made an audible „click" as the engines switched into cruise she accelerated 250 feet above the waves she set a governor to roughly 420 mph and pulled up. She passed the beasts belly, made a hard left turn and ended on its right wingtip and dove down to attack. Her two MG-39's spat out roughly eighty rounds of explosive tracer ammunition per second. They barely left a dent and she also had to stop firing, because Sakamoto flew close to the Neurois surface. Olivia managed to pull quite some attention onto her, dodging Laser-Barrages left and right. Still, the Neuroi managed to land some shots on Destroyers and some on the Akagi too. The Seamen could catch a glimpse of Yoshika rushing over the deck trying her best to be of help. Sakamoto swung her Katana and cut off one of the Neurois wings. As soon as she finished the cut, the Neurois wing fell off, spraying a shower of splinters over the Carriers deck and the surrounding sea. It still managed to tear off Akagis bridge roof. But by that time Yoshika was already in the air, flying towards Sakamoto. „Hey Olivia, you can see that the Neuroi consists of a wing- and a tail section. At the binding point between the two sits the core. We draw the fire onto ourselves and let Yoshika do the shooting" „Roger and wilco", Olivia replied diving in for another pass, this time upside down blowing about fifty holes into the Neurois port-side wing, each being not bigger than a football and healing rapidly, closing less than a minute after they were blasted open. Sakamoto told Yoshika to dive when Olivia started to fire, and aim for the core. The A6M2 Zero's that were called in by Sakamoto helped to cover Yoshika pretty well as she dove in and shot.

Roughly ten minutes before Yoshika was given the green light, just before Sakamoto noticed the Neuroi the alarm sirens started blaring in the witches base in the street of Dover, two witches were sunbathing and were the first in the air, the rest accompanied them just minutes later. Now Yoshika was diving in once more, this time uncovering the twelve-sided rosé core of the Neuroi. Once the core was visible she turned around coming in for the kill. Time slowed down as a single 20mm bullet left its barrel and travelled at supersonic speeds towards its target shattering the ten feet large crystal core granting Yoshika her first kill.

By this time the 501st was in firing range, with a singe armour-piercing bullet, preventing the core from being shielded again, giving Yoshika the time she needed to kill the neuroi. Or was it even Yoshika who got the kill? It might be, that this will never be solved. Needless to say, the tension that Yoshika build up was released and she lost consciousness in mid flight luckily Sakamoto catches her and she hold her whilst flying towards the other witches. They led Olivia to the base, gave her the clearing for landing and she landed. She managed to back her jet up in the hangar in a way that she could fly out immediately, if needed. This was the first time she saw the entire 501st Joint Fighter Wing, the Strike Witches.

**A/N: I'm about to finish chapter three and have just updated CH2.**


	3. Colleagues

Into the Dark Chapter 3: Making friends

After Olivia reversed her jet into the hangar of the witches base, everybody came into the hangar to see what all the commotion is about, as the jet engines could be heard throughout the entire base.. All witches had their strikers already stored in their respective mounts and the air was filled with the roar of the two jet engines. Olivia jumped out of the cockpit, closed said cockpit and climbed of the ladder, a folder of documents under her arm. „Who are you?", Barkhorn asked breaking the awkward silence, after the engines were shut down. „I'm Olivia, currently assisting Major Sakamoto in terms of fighting capability. May I ask who you are?", Olivia responded to the brown haired girl standing in front of her. „Captain Gertrud Barkhorn, Karlsland Air Force.", she replied, still gritting her teeth, „Now tell me: Why are you here and what is this strange aircraft?" Olivia took a deep breath and answered her: „I think we should discuss this together with Major Sakamoto"

Barkhorn and another girl escorted Olivia from the hangar through long corridors to a door. Next to the door was a small brass sign saying: Minna-Dietline Wilcke, Wing Commander 501st JFW. Barkhorn knocked onto the door and a few seconds later a voice spoke from the inside. „Come in", she said and Barkhorn opened the door into a comfortable office.

The left wall was completely filled with a huge bookshelf, in the middle, in front of the Windows there was a desk, with who was presumably Minna Wilcke behind it. „Hello there, you must be Olivia, I am Wing Commander Wilcke. Welcome to Britannia and also welcome to our base. Major Sakamoto has already told me about you as far as you already told. Let me just ask you this in Person: Are you really from another world? And if so where do you come from?", the wine-haired Girl behind the massive oak desk asked.

Olivia sighed, she answered her question:„It is true, I do come from another world. But due to the laws of time shift, I cant tell you much. But I can tell you that I come from a country which is in europa and its not too small in terms of Industry and other trade. In the last three months before coming here, I was mostly in the Mojave desert, test-flying my plane and training to be able to show full combat capabilities to any interested militaries." Minna noted everything Olivia said down in a brown paperback folder. „Ok",she said, finishing her notes and putting down her pen, „One question remains: How can we make you a real member of the 501st without the upstairs knowing?" „Well, I think that's going to take quite a bit of imagination. Does anyone of you know someone in R&D?", she answered the question with yet another.

As she said this question the eyes of one of the other girls in the room lit up and she raised her hand „I know someone", she told Minna and everyone else. „My Sister is in R&D, I could ask her." „Very good, I'll think of some explanation for you Olivia. In the meantime we should go and introduce you to everyone else." Very early on the next day Olivia and Yoshika were called into Minna's Office. From there the four witches and Olivia walked through what seemed like a labyrinth of hallways until they ended up in front of a double door.

Barkhorn opened the doors and walked into the room in which all of the witches inside. This was, as they wold later learn, the briefing room. Sakamoto motioned Yoshika to come with Olivia and Minna. „Everyone, today we get two new members of the 501st, these are Yoshika Mijafuyi", she mentioned over to Yoshika who in response bowed her head as a greeting, „And Olivia, the two will be having the ranks of Sergeant and Captain, respectively." Olivia waved and smiled as a response. „Inside this you find your insignia and pretty much everything else you need" „Uhm", Yoshika said pointing at the pistol laying atop her box, „I don't need this" this caused Minna to raise her eyebrows. „Are you sure? You should still keep it.", she responded. „I still don't want to", Yoshika said holding the handgun at an arms length from herself. Just a few seconds later Minna handed the other box to Olivia, who just held it. Now everyone introduced themselves to Yoshika and Olivia. „Great, everyone is now dismissed. Lynne, can you take Yoshika and Olivia around the base now? ", Minna asked the quiet blond haired girl who then nodded in response.

They once again made their way through the corridors making stops at the hangar, the infirmary, the huge bath and ended the tour in the kitchen. „Whoa, that's a really big kitchen", Yoshika said, not being able to close her jaw, „Do you have someone who cooks for you or do we do it in rotations?" Lynne informed Yoshika that, yes they had a cook, but sometimes made their home countries traditional cuisine. Yoshika smiled, „You're gonna love fusoian food ", she guaranteed Lynne. „In my universe it's not too hard to eat good fusoian cuisine", Olivia said.

They then continued their tour around the base until they came to the personnel's quarters. „Okay, so here is my room ", Lynne said, while standing in front of a big oak wood door next to which was a small sign with her name on it. „Oh, that's good to know, my room is right next door"„And mine is one door further down the hallway than Yoshika's", Yoshika and Olivia said. Sakamoto had ordered Yoshika and Lynette to training, so they went to that pretty soon.

Olivia on the other had made her way from her room into the small library that the base had and walked into the dining room with quite a stack of books and her digital office in hand. She then opened a small laptop and began rummaging inside the books until it was time for dinner, or to be more precise five minutes before anyone came into the kitchen to make dinner. She came to dinner with a book in her hand still learning about the history of the world that she has been thrown into just over a month ago.

Yoshika and Lynette, who both were great chefs, joined forces and procured a delicious stew that oddly but tastily had noodles. Well it was more of a crossing between a classical stew and Ramen, but it bothered no one.

Once everyones stomachs were filled and Lynette and Yoshika went to clean up the kitchen and dishes Sakamoto spoke once again: „Olivia, since I have seen you training regimen on our way here I believe that you can take care of yourself in that department but you are very much invited to join me when I'm training the others. Oh and Barkhorn, you and Erika are on patrol duty this afternoon".

After Sakamoto left towards the hangar Olivia hurried to catch up to her. „Do you know if there are any fuel tanks o this base that can hold kerosene? "„There are a few ones for our transport plane but those only hold gasoline. What even is kerosene? "„It's a kind of gasoline that burns hotter and with less remains. Oh, and it's also lead free. But since I got some lead free gas aboard the Akagi, I have some time organizing a fuel supply for me." „We can try using the gasoline that we have on base, I think its lead free.", Sakamoto said. „Let's try it in the morning. I'm heading for the library.", Olivia sad and turned on her heels and went off and into the Library.

The moon was high above the horizon as Olivia looked up the next time. „My my, it is late already I better go off to bed now", she muttered to herself as she saved the document she was working on and shut down her laptop, then she heard the engines of a striker nearby and she hurried to the nearest window and saw Sanya sortie from the runway into the clear night sky. Olivia packed up her laptop and headed for her bed.

In the early hours of the morning, just as the sun began to light up the horizon, the alarm sounded on base. While most were still half asleep they scrambled into the briefing room where Minna informed them of the plan and formation. Erika and Barkhorn were up front Shirley and Lucchini in the back with Perrine and Sakamoto in the middle. Everybody else remained on standby. The enemy that was spotted was a single scout type over the British channel. As the fight stretched on it became clear that they needed backup. „Base, we need some backup", Barkhorn hastily shouted over the radio.

As soon as she heard it Yoshika began arguing with Minna to let her sortie. On the contrary Olivia just ran into the hangar jumped into her jet and took of on a blue glowing flame spear. Since it's a jet the entire base heard the growling scream of the jet engines as it took into the skies departing towards the combat zone over the middle of the channel.

About a minute after Olivia sortied, Minna, Eila, Yoshika and Lynne did the same.

While Olivia held back the others dove in and started firing at the small scouting neuroi. Only as it ditched its rear and accelerated Olivia took up the chase and drove it right into Yoshika's and Lynne's sights. They destroyed it by outsmarting its dodging mechanism and shooting bullets where it would be and not where it is. After everyone went back to base, Yoshika and Lynne went into the bath, it was only logical since they dropped into the channels cold water. So instead of these two Lucchini and Shirley made breakfast.

After the two had finished breakfast they continued training with Sakamoto, a thing that wouldn't change over the next days and weeks.

One day at breakfast Erika noticed Barkhorns unusually small appetite. „Is everything ok, Trude? You don't seem ok", she asked her. „I'm fine, I just don't have much of an appetite today", she said to the now mildly distressed looking Erika. „Well if she's not eating much that means that there is more for the rest of us", Lucchini announced her appetite. After everyone had finished breakfast, Yoshika was sent to clean parts of the base but ended up colliding with Perrine unluckily. She had to scramble and try to get Perrine of her tail. Luckily she managed to do just that and arrived back in the Kitchen. They then prepared Tea for the afternoon, complete with cake and scones. The Tea was quite enjoyable with the exception of Perrine sparking out at Yoshika's way of drinking Tea.

„Yoshika please ty to drink the Tea silently. I know that you are used to drinking Tea audibly but that is just that way back in Fuso", Sakamoto scolded Yoshika who then continued sipping the Tea in silence, only stopping for bits of Scone.

After Teatime was finished and the dishes were washed, everyone gathered in the dinning room to receive their pay. Most sent a big chunk of the ten pounds (half months pay of 1944 pounds) they got as payment back to their families.

After Minna got around to speaking with Olivia she asked:,„Since you're from anther Universe and Time I don't know what to do with your pay. What would you do?" „Oh that's simple. Half invest into stocks, IBM, do not drop them and the other half in person as money to spend while I'm here.", Olivia responded to Minna's question.

After the meeting, a few of the witches went into the bath to relax. „Ten pounds, that's gotta be a lot of money. I wonder how may bowls of rice that would sum up to", Yoshika asked herself. „One pound is equivalent to 19,6 Yen at the moment.", Sakamoto answered as she sat down in the hot water next to Yoshika. Miyafuji was baffled about how much she was earning. „That sums up to about 4000 bowls of rice", she calculated in her head. „And that's only half a months pay", Sakamoto shocked her again.

The next morning Sakamoto, Perrine, Barkhorn and Yoshika were out in the air, training pair formations. Suddenly they got an alarm for a Neuroi that was about to enter the Calais area. Minna, Lucchini and Shirley followed them on sortie with Eila, Sanya, Lynne and Olivia remaining on standby. Olivia and Lynne heard everything from the kitchen where they prepared lunch. They heard Yoshika refusing to leave Barkhorn behind and healing her even though she told them to just leave her there. „I didn't know that Yoshika was willing to go through that high of a risk", Lynne commented on her friends actions in battle. Both of the heard Minna's hand slap Barkhorn in the face.

**A/N: Yes, the F-36 has some Remote Control functions. Next Chapter should be coming rather soon.**


End file.
